bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Raheem

#38 Committing Criminal Excesses

You acted scandalized and denounced al-Khomayni,
the Iranian leader, and his friends when they made the verse "The only
reward of those who make war upon Allah and His messenger and strive after
corruption in the land will be that they will be killed or crucified or have
their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the
land. Such will be their degradation in the world, and in the Hereafter theirs
will be an awful doom" (5:33) an excuse to issue death warrants and
execution orders against their adversaries.

Yet you yourselves later took that same
verse as an avenue to commit the same acts against your own opponents, using it
to cut off the heads of inadvertent offenders among the foreigners and the
helpless, even for possessing a little hashish or qat. We neither heard that you
consulted the Islamic Juridical Council (Majma` al-Fiqh al-Islami)
located near you in Jeddah, nor that you sought out the least confirmation in
the matter from other authorities such as al-Azhar or the major Ulema of the
Muslims!

It appears that you have studiously
forgotten, in your capacity as judges, the narration of `A'isha that the
Messenger of Allah - Allah bless and greet him - said: "Ignore the offenses
of those seen to possess [good] qualities (dhawî al-hay'ât), except in
[corporal and capital] penalties."1

`A'isha also related that the Prophet -
Allah bless and greet him - said: "Stave off the penalties from the Muslims
as much as you can, and if any leeway is found then release the detainee. Truly
it is preferable for the ruler to pardon mistakenly than to punish
mistakenly." Al-Tirmidhi narrated it and said: "This report has been
narrated from her without raising it up to the Prophet - Allah bless and greet
him -, which is more correct."2 The hadith master Ibn Hajar said:

Al-Bukhari
said the most authentic narration on the chapter is Sufyan al-Thawri, from `Asim,
from Abu Wa'il, from `Abd Allah ibn Mas`ud who said: "Stave off the
penalties by way of inconclusive evidence. Avert death from the Muslims as much
as you can." The same was narrated from `Uqba ibn `Amir and Mu`adh with mawqûf
chains and `Umar with a munqati` mawqûf chain.3 Abu Muhammad ibn Hazm
related it from `Umar in al-Isal with a sound mawqûf chain. Ibn Abi Shayba
similarly narrated through Ibrahim al-Nakha`i from `Umar that the latter said:
"To erroneously not apply the penalties because of inconclusive evidence is
dearer to me than mistakenly applying them on the basis of inconclusive
evidence." It is also in al-Harithi's Musnad Abi Hanifa, from Miqsam, from
Ibn `Abbas, raised to the Prophet - Allah bless and greet him -.4

You also forgot what the Most Truthful
said concerning human life: "Whosoever kills a human being for other
than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if be had killed
all mankind, and whoso saves the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the
life of all mankind. Our messengers came unto them of old with clear proofs (of
the sovereignty of Allah), but afterwards lo! many of them became prodigals in
the earth" (5:32). And you forgot that the Prophet - Allah bless and
greet him - said: "The first judgment that shall be passed among the people
on the Day of Resurrection shall be over blood [unjustly shed]."5

Therefore, fear Allah Most High and do
not kill a life which Allah Most High made sacred, except in justice! And be
warned of the causes for remorse and guilt the Day of Woe and Resurrection.

3Mawqûf: "Stopped." A chain arrested at the
Companion-narrator without explicit attribution to the Prophet - Allah bless and
greet him -. Munqati`: "Cut up." A chain missing two successive
links or missing only the Successor-link.